gold and silver and precious stones, which they took away with them when they fled. But how were the dyes obtained? Probably, when they "spoiled the Egyptians," they carried off boxes of cochineal insects, so valuable for the beautiful red dye obtained from them. Is, then, the brilliant colour used in the Tabernacle curtains, the robe of the high priest, the gorgeous garments of the Greeks and Romans, the unfading tapestries of Brussels and Flanders, the bright coats of our soldiers, the glowing wools used to make winter mufflers and warm flannels, produced from an insect? Indeed it is; and what is perhaps THE VINE PYRALIS. CATERPILLAR OF THE more wonderful, the substance of which the very polish on our chairs, tables, brass fenders, and bedsteads is chiefly composed, is also formed by insects. For centuries it was supposed that the little creature which produces the crimson dye was the seed of the cactus on which it is found, and from which its scientific name of coccus cacti, or cactus scale, is derived. Later on, however, it was proved that the apparently lifeless globule found adhering to the tender branches of the tree was the living female of a tiny winged insect. In English hot-houses, and in warm climates, insects of the same family do great damage to vines GATHERING COCHINEAL IN ALGERIA. and fruit trees by sucking the sap, upon which they exist. They lay their eggs, which look like bits of white cotton, on the stems of the plants, very often, if means are not used for destroying them, covering the same. In Mexico-the principal seat of the cochineal trade-whole plantations of the nopal tree (a sort of prickly pear) are cultivated for the especial purpose of providing food for the insects from which the valuable dye is obtained, the virgin females being the most precious. The lady selects a young and tender branch on which to dwell and bring forth her family. When a suitable spot is found, she inserts her beak into the soft bark, and begins to suck the juices of the tree. She rapidly increases in bulk, till, from being about the size of a pin's head, she grows as large as a pea. No useless expenditure of strength in taking exercise is indulged in; she never moves from the point on which she settles down, and, save for growing, shows no sign of life. Although mankind has taken her for a bean, a gall, the seeds of a plant, or anything but what she really is, her seeming lifelessness does not deceive the eyes of her lover-a tiny blood-red insect, with two broad opaque white wings bordered with crimson at least twice the length of his body. His abdomen is terminated by two long sweeping filaments. How he gets a living nobody knows; for his mouth is in a very undeveloped state, and not at all well provided with instruments for piercing the stems of plants and sucking their juices. However, whether he does or does not know the delights to be experienced from eating, he appears to enjoy life, is very lively, and flies about in search of the particular globule which is to become his bride. When his bright eyes and long feathery antennæ have discovered her whereabouts, he alights on her broad back, takes a walk over it, examines it from east to west, from north to south, with evident satisfaction. Not, however, content with the close inspection of her charms, he rises in the air, takes a kind of bird'seye view of his beloved, flies round her once or twice, and finally tears himself away from the contemplation of her beauty. The female cochineal is not satisfied with being merely the mother of her children, but she also forms. their shelter and their home. She lays about 2,000 eggs, all enveloped in a kind of cotton. These oval are so extremely tiny, that without the aid of a microscope the individual ones cannot be discerned. After depositing her eggs, the mother becomes very thin. Her inside dries away, and the upper and under surface of her body meet and harden, forming a dome under which the tiny eggs repose in security. COCHINEAL INSECT (magnified). |